Comment Spam

One of the changes to the blog world between the time I stopped posting in April and now is comment spam. I'm referring to random posts that are advertising some product or website.

I had seen some spam in the comment section of some other blogs, but not on blogs hosted by blogger. Well, apparently, they made their way to the blogger.com hosted blogs. How annoying!

After clicking submit on my first post in a long time I immediately got a couple of comments (they get emailed to me). I thought, wow, someone's already reading my blog again! You know that feeling you get when you come home and there's a message on your answering machine? (well, we don't even have a land line any more, but you know what I mean) Well, that's the same feeling I get when I get comments on my blog. It means someone cares!

Well, how naive I was to think someone cared to leave their very best within 30 seconds of my post. Actually I should have known better...how the hell is someone gonna read my post and leave a comment within 30 seconds?!

Anyways, I checked the comments and there were both spam! I deleted them and let it be, but then I got another spam comment later in they day. I had to nip this nonsense in the bud since I really don't care about reading the Fox TV schedule for tonight (all of the spam talked about the Fox TV schedule for some reason)

So now I've got this image verification function turned on so when people leave a comment they've gotta type in the letters/numbers which appear in the image. I guess that makes it difficult for bots to post spam. Seems like it's working since I haven't gotten any spam since turning it on. Hopefully it's not a pain to everyone else that may want to leave a comment (all 2 of you!)

How about the other bloggers in the bunch? Are you getting much of this spam?

Blame Game

The blame game continues in New Orleans:

NEW ORLEANS - Residents began trickling back Monday as part of a plan by the mayor to reopen New Orleans one ZIP code at a time, despite repeated warnings from the top federal official on the scene — and President Bush himself — that the city is not ready.

Mayor Ray Nagin defended his decision to let people back in, and suggested that the federal official in charge in New Orleans, Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, had made himself “the new crowned federal mayor of New Orleans.”
AP - Sept 13th, 2005

Now, I'm not saying that Mayor Nagin is completely correct in his decision to allow some people to move back into New Orleans. I'm also not saying that the Feds are wrong to disagree. In fact, I think Mayor Nagin is a little crazy and not the best leader under the immense pressure he's been under over the past few weeks. My main problem with this whole situation is that all of this is happening in public...

There's clearly a lot of blame to be passed around in this situation from top to bottom. And everyone is trying their darndest to cover their asses as best possible. I fully expect the Bush Admin to disagree with just about any major decision made along the Gulf Coast. If nothing else, it covers their asses so they can say "I told you so" if things don't work out. I fully expect local authorities to push for faster recovery than might be recommended so they can display their leadership in tough times. If nothing else, it covers their asses so they can say "I tried" even if the decisions aren't the perfect ones.

These two ways of thinking tend to conflict with each other, but I think they can be worked out for the best results. The problem here is that each side wants to be seen as right at the cost of the other side being wrong. And this is not just a matter of being right while the other side is wrong. This is a matter of doing it all in public.

And that's what pisses me off the most about this. This is probably my bias coming in here, but I think this makes the Bush Admin come off as the petty ones in this argument. They're the ones with the experience (supposedly) so they should be doing their best to ensure that agreements can be made for the benefit of all. To be honest, I think Mayor Nagin is in over his head. He really doesn't have much experience and it shows. That being said, I give him a little more benefit of the doubt since he's clearly trying his hardest for the benefit of the people of New Orleans. While I'm sure he's trying to save his rep (what little there is of it given his lack of experience), he doesn't come off as petty; he simply comes off as trying to make decisions under pressure.

My thoughts on all this?

• It's probably naive to think that you can let people into portions of NOLA and still be able to block off other portions of the city (ostensibly to prevent looting, etc).


• Mayor Nagin is in over his head, but he wants to try to get his city back to some semblance of normalcy sooner rather than later.


• Bush & Co are being petty by making it public that they disagree with Nagin's decision. They could have figured out a way to make this all work out and perhaps delay NOLA's re-population be a week or two.


• Bush & Co would have found a way to make it work if local leadership was GOP and not Dem.

Nice to see politics taking a back seat to good leadership ;)

UPDATE: 9/19/05 2:45pm
So the story to which I linked above has been updated indicating that the re-population of NOLA has been halted due to tropical storm Rita (are we already to the R's?!). All of the comments above still stand, but let's see what further political gamesmanship occurs before people actually get to go back to NOLA.

Oh, and one other thing a friend and I agree upon: Nagin is a little crazy and should simply refrain from speaking when he's too emotional. Like I said, he doesn't have much experience and probably gets too caught up in things. I do believe he's still making the decisions he thinks are best, but Bush & Co are and will continue to use his strange comments against him. Thank god we get to see such leadership in our times :|

I Am.

So it took me a while to get around to actually posting again. In fact, there have been many moments since April when I've wanted to post, but never actually loaded up blogger. The most recent moment is what I decided would be my step back into the fray...whenever that happens.

Well, I've finally loaded up blogger and that moment is now so let's jump in with something that really filled my heart with "gladness" and put a grin on my face.

A few weeks ago I saw this foreign film called "L'Auberge Espagnole". Literally, it means "The Spanish Inn". It's about an French exchange student who goes to Barcelona for a year as part of the Erasmus program. Don't ask me what that program is, since I don't know. It seems like a program to bring various foreign students together to experience a new country. As one would imagine, the film is really about learning new things, opening oneself up to the various opportunities out there, and simply exploring life for what it's worth (It's definitely a film worth watching as it's not too "out there" in the way some foreign/artsy films can be, but it's definitely more fulfilling than most of the crap that put out there)

Now, I've watched a lot of foreign films in my day. Many of them have this same sort of message. While watching these films I generally end up thinking "I wish I could do something like that"

But you know what? For the first time, while watching a film like this I actually thought "I Am"

I Am exploring new opportunities.

I Am enjoying life for what it is.

When I realized that, I couldn't help but grin. I looked over at my wife who was sound asleep, looked over at my dog who was thinking about walking over to me for a chin scratch, and I smiled. I nodded my head.

I Am.

...

So to fill you in as to why there's this sudden change, part of the reason that I haven't posted in so long is because I've been busy with a new business venture that a friend and I are pursuing. After so many years of thinking about it and doubting myself, I'm finally following the path to becoming a professional photographer.

I can finally say that I Am pursuing my photographic passions.

Additionally, my wife and I made the big decision to start a family. There's nothing baking just yet, but just the decision alone has really changed my view on some things and created this lasting optimism that wasn't there before.

I Am going to be a father...who knows when though so don't ask and don't take this is the official announcement since there's nothing to announce yet :P

And just as a final addition, can I just say that we have the best friends? A friend got married this summer & another got engaged and, as expected, it brought all of us just that much closer. Yet another reason to smile.

So anyways, I've been very silent in the online universe, but in the past 141 days I found so many reasons to smile and be happy with where we are in life. And the next time I watch one of these films, I'll still think "I Am." and not wish I could be some place else in life.

I Am in the place I want to be.

Back

It's been 141 days since my last posting here. My next post is less than 141 days away. Hopefully less than 1 day away. Buckle up :)

The Sitayana

So this is old news in the Desi blogosphere by now, but I finally took a look at the Sitayana animated shorts by Nina Paley and I'm just beyond impressed! Ms. Paley has re-imagined The Ramayana from Sita's perspective and set it all to 1920's jazz music. The animation is very imaginative and the soundtrack is used as the only dialogue. If you don't already know the story of The Ramayana this makes it a bit confusing, but if you already know the story, you'll find that the soundtrack and animation fits with the storyline perfectly.

Thanks to Turbanhead for bringing this to the attention of so many people.

These animations are apparently so popular now that the artist can't even afford to host them on her own site any more so read on to get the dirt on where to find these amazing videos...


Nina Paley's website can be found here: www.ninapaley.com

She refers to this site for direct downloads of the quicktime movies.

Sepia Mutiny's Manish has posted torrents of the first four shorts here.

The files are rather large, but well worth it.

If you don't have time to download who files, you can check out a streaming episode here: http://www.ninapaley.com/Sitayana/sitayanaquicktime.html

Hotel Rwanda

So it's been well over a month since I last posted here. I've heard it from several friends about my lacking of posting and I simply couldn't find the time nor the energy to write. Well, after watching Hotel Rwanda last night, I think it's time for me to start this baby up again.


Rarely do films move me. Forget about moving me, I rarely even get emotional during movies let alone look internally to imagine what the character must be going through. But watching the events unfold in this story really made me wonder if I could ever do what Paul Rusesabagina did to save the lives of almost 1300 Rwandan refugees. What's makes this true story even more amazing is that this man isn't someone who crusaded to change the world. He was simply confronted with a situation and dealt with it. I'm sure he felt overwhelmed at some points (they had a "fictional" scene in the movie where Paul lost it after seeing hundreds of bodies strewn across the road), but he carried on and did what he knew was his duty.

And that's really what makes this story so powerful. It shows us that we are all capable of such things during the worst of times. Above, I mentioned that I don't think I'd be able to do what Paul R. did during the Rwandan genocide, but the thing is...he probably didn't think he could do it either. In fact, at the beginning of the movie, it's clear that Paul R. just wanted to look out for his family, but once thrown into the situation, he ended up saving almost 1300 people!

All of this being said, I really wonder how this movie didn't win more at the Oscars. Granted, the Oscars are not the end-all-be-all when it comes to stories such as this. In fact, the true test of this greatness for this movie is how many are moved to do something about similar events elsewhere (Darfur, Sudan for example). But in terms of the Hollywood crowd, this SHOULD be a hands-down favorite to win big time. Playing on the Hollywood stereotypes, the movie portrays an activist, he's non-white, he helps saves lives, he is truly a hero amongt villains. What else do you want? Ahh yes, that's right, nobody invovled in the production of this movie is on the "inside" in Hollywood. There's really no competition when it comes to competing against insiders like Clint Eastwood (Million Dollar Baby) and current it-boys like Jamie Foxx (Ray). Congratulations on their wins, but seriously...have you seen Don Cheadle in this movie? How about Sophie Okonedo who plays Paul R's wife?

Ok, so I'll end this post without going on too much longer. If you haven't seen this movie yet, you've gotta go rent it. I haven't seen a movie this powerful in a LONG time and it's something all of should see.

Hip-hop's version of municipal bonds

Following up on a recent post, I found this article: The Game Is Up (Brendan I. Koerner, Slate.com)

It's a pretty dead on summary of why Dr. Dre does so well. He's obviously got production talent. But he's got great ability to pick talent. But he's also got great ability to keep things in control and not get over-exposed. The article mentioned Eminem, Fiddy, and The Game as rappers that Dre has made, but completely forgets to mention Snoop as well.

Sorry to say that Snoop has gone the other way and is really just out to make a quick buck now; you can tell that by all the crap he puts out now. Sure, his singles are catchy and they get mass radio play, but after a month or two, that's it. Can you name a Snoop track from more than 3 months ago? I can remember Drop It Like It's Hot, bt beyond that all I remember is the song with all the Brazilian chicks in it. What was it called? Who knows.

But you'll never forget Doggy Dog World or Ain't No Fun. And why is that? Dre produced 'em. If someone else had produced Snoop's first album, I'm sure it would have been crap. But instead, there was so much buzz about the guy that he was on top of the world before he even had an album out! Same with Fiddy (In Da Club) and The Game (How We Do). It's not the rappers who are immortal, it's the producer who's immortal (Excuse me if I call Dre an immortal). And it's all because he goes for quality rather than quantity. Even if it means moving onto new rappers so he can keep tight control over the quality.

But this article speaks to a lot of what makes greats into immortals. There are many out there who could produce 10 times the material that they do, but they spend the time to make sure that what ends up coming out goes beyond what anyone could produce. Take U2 for example. A friend and I always talk about how U2's B-Sides are better than 90% of the music that's ever put out. And those are the tracks that U2 think are not good enough for their albums! I'm sure that if U2 had not recorded 100 tracks in studio just to narrow it down to 11 or 12 tracks for an album, their track record wouldn't be nearly as good. They might be able to live off their laurels for an album or two, but after that it'd be caput.

So there you go. It's not just hype and marketing. It's anticipation based on the quality work that the artist or producer has put out in the past. When that past work is consistently good, you can count on good shit the next time you hear their stuff. There are so few of these types of people, and that's what takes them beyond just great and makes them immortal.

Salt March

Today is the 75th Anniversary of the start of Gandhi's Salt March in India. Gandhi started this march not just to protest the taxation of salt by the British, but to make a grand spectacle of such injustice. Sure enough, the entire nation was held captive by these events and many consider this march to be the start of the national capaign for a Free India.

Here's a site with a good rundown of the March. The entire site is actually put together by a professor at UCLA who's class I took while there. Good stuff there about the entire Indian experience.

Here's some coverage of the commemoration of the 75th anniversary in India where there is a re-enactment of the entire march.

Additionally, we at Young India have published our newsletter, Samay, with special features about the Salt March. The newsletter is a monthly publication (I'm the Editor-in-Chief) so give it a read as there is some interesting analysis there about other issues of the day.

BFF-Unit!

We can all rest easy now as the rap world is back on its axis. If you've been keeping track like I have, you'd know that 50-Cent and The Game have made up after a little throw down in the lobby of the Hot 97 studios in New York.

I know this is HUGE news to all you Nelly fans out there, so that's why I gotta break it down. Here's a HARD-HITTING article from MTV about 50-Cent dropping The Game from G-G-G-G-G-G G-Unit!. Mysteriously, there were shots fired in the lobby of the Hot 97 studios when our man Fiddy was doing an interview of upstairs. Apparently it was The Game's posse throwin down. It all blew up from there.

The homie Funkmaster Flex initially offered to negotiate. After all, hip-hop's about the love and Flex got muscle in the game to keep things mellow. Flex quickly realized the seriousness of the situation and pulled his offer to negotiate. He must have read this article on MTV about how Fiddy and The Game have had troubles from the start.

Well, apparently it's all gravy between the two loveable rappers. BBC has called it in favor of the Harlem Boys Choir which somehow came away with $253,500. So what lead these two to kiss and make up? This writer suspects Dr. Dre had something to do with it. He can't let a shooting or two impede his way to 200 million records sold.

I can finally fall asleep at night knowing these two are BFF. In fact, I think they should take my suggestion and rename the crew to BFF-Unit. Now let me go rationalize how I could have just spent more than 30 minutes on writing this and making the heart image.

Chaaterific

Yes, I can make up words.

Since I grew up in Southern California, I tend to compare NorCal with SoCal now and again. I used to do it much more often (like everyday when I first moved up here), but I still do it even though I've lived here for five years now.

One of the big differences I've always noticed between the two regions is the type and quality of Indian food. This is all generalization, but I feel like the Bay Area has a much better array of Indian food options. SoCal has many restaurants, but most are North Indian and most are sit-down. The Bay Area has a bigger variety ranging from North Indian cuisine to South Indian and there are many, many fast food joints including Chaat places. It's so noticeable that even my parents comment on it. When they come up to visit, we usually take them to at least one fast food Indian joint since the food is so good and it's like half the price of most Indian restaurants in SoCal.

Well, it seems the New York Times has noticed the evolution of Indian restaurants and the emergence of Chaat as a central item that Indians crave: Mumbai to Midtown, Chaat Hits the Spot (Julie Moskin, NY Times)

If you've read to this point and you're STILL wondering what the hell chaat is, well, read the damned NY Times article! But if you really don't want to read it here's the run down: chaat is a catch-all term for Indian snacks. It's usually consists of sev (fired noodles, I guess you could say) mixed with various chutneys and melded into spicy sweet goodness. A lot of it is fried so I wonder exactly how bad for one's health the stuff is, but no matter, a good chaat can be better than an In-N-Out burger (and that's saying a lot!)

We'll go for chaat occasionally, but when we go to India it's a dangerous pleasure. Dangerous you say? Well, here, the food is made in relatively sanitary environments, but in India chaat is usually sold from carts along busy streets (as you can read in the NY Times article). The more establish vendors (called Chaat-wallahs) have moved into roadside buildings, but the ideas the same. So as a tourist not used to the food there, we risk getting sick just to enjoy the goodness. Yes, it's a pleasure worth risking your life over!

That being said, I'm starving and it's not close to lunch time yet!

***UPDATE***
Yes, Sepia Mutiny has already posted about this. I should check them before making any posts about Indian related articles in any newspaper :). Here's the link to their posting: Chutney Lady (Manish, Sepia Mutiny)

Butts Are Bad

Cigarette butts that is.

My wife was watching her Indian soaps the other night and I noticed a message across the bottom of the screen in bright, bold lettering: "SMOKING IS INJURIOUS TO HEALTH"

The scene in the show had a woman puffing on a butt in the hospital (Let's forget about how unhealthy this might be to patients in the hospital). It's interesting to see this message displayed. It's something we'd never get in the US. I guess it's the Indian censor board's (or ZeeTV's) attempts at letting viewers know what's up with smoking. I remember there was a mild controversy around Bollywood actors lighting up on screen all the time and making it look cool.

And that's what this is about. The main reason people start smoking is because it's cool. They get messages about how bad it is for one's health, but they smoke nevertheless (I should note that I'm a very occassional smoker, usually only lighting it up when I'm very drunk...last time I lit one up was New Year's Eve...and before then? Who knows...) So I figure that these logic-based approaches to anti-smoking campaigns can't do much good. In Canada and Europe they have pictures of diseased lungs on cigarette packs. I guess that might revile people more than a simple warning message on the side of the box. But again, my guess is that people already know about all the diseases that smoking causes and seeing a picture of it isn't going to bring it home any better.

So switch to current American anti-smoking ads. Have you seen those ads for The Truth? These are pretty slick. The latest one is a fake comedy show about cigarette execs coming up with new ways to entice young people to smoke.

So I won't go into my whole analysis of this. Have a read of How To Get Teens Not To Smoke (Seth Stevenson, Slate.com). I think his analysis is pretty dead on. Reading his piece is what made me think about the relative non-utility of the usual anti-smoking campaigns we're used to. I wonder if other countries will pick up on this campaign method. Hope so.

Wrap Up

Here are a few articles from recent reading which you might find interesting

• The 7 Percent Delusion (Daniel Gross, Slate) - I find Daniel Gross's pieces quite interesting since he tries to put numbers to a lot of the Discussions of the Day. In this case, he compares results you can expect from stocks versus bonds. Just a little more information about why you should be sceptical about Social Security & private account projections. He certainly has liberal leanings but I appreciate the numbers based approach he takes. That being said, just remember that statistics can always be worked to make your argument look good ;)


• Many Uphappy Returns (Paul Krugman, NY Times) - Gross refers to this Krugman op-ed from February. When I originally read it back then I meant to post a blog about it but didn't have time to really comment on it. Anyways, here's the time to read this short op-ed. Again, when it comes to numbers you can only be more sceptical about the plans for privatization. Let's be frank and say that the real debate is about the philosophical underpinnings of Social Security and not the financial viability. Some politicians are finally being honest about that so that's good. I don't mind a debate on the philosophical reasons for and against SS. In fact, I welcome honest debate on that. If you're going to talk financials, the program in real trouble is Medicare, not SS. So let's move on


• What Bush Got Right (Fareed Zakaria, Newsweek Online) - Good piece. Zakaria mentions that Bush needs to get the "small things right". On the second page, he goes on to detail the small things. I wouldn't say that they're exactly "small" things, but this one line from his piece summarizes it: "Every country, culture and people yearns for freedom. But building real, sustainable democracy with rights and protections is complex." I honestly hope Bush gets this right. No matter how dishonest I believe his policies, politics, and methods are, I sincerely hope this ends up right. Make sure you read onto the second page of this piece as I believe the real meat is in the latter half.

That's it for now. Happy reading.

Wrap Up

So I'm going to try something different from my random musings: a regular update. I read so much stuff on the web that I figure I should pick out the most interesting things and post them up here. I will not likely add my comments about each piece, but we'll see. It's your choice about reading these things or not. I can't promise to do one of these things every day, but I'll do my best to keep it regular. I'll call it "Wrap Up" just as a way to denote that the post will generally wrap up a collection of articles into a single spot.

That being said, I'll still post random nonsense. Without further ado, here's today's reading which focuses on the Middle East:

• Playing with Dominoes (Slate) - Blog Chatter about the democracy happenings in Lebanon, Egypt, etc. Amazing stuff that's going on, but my only caution about this is that democracy is not simply the act of calling for elections. Democracy is an instituion which supports itself, it's not an event.
  


• Was George Bush Right About Freedom and Democracy? (Slate) - More to the point about what's going on in the Middle East right now. If I haven't been clear about this, I truly believe some of this can be tied to the Bush Admin's actions, but much of it was already in the works. Moreover, we can't yet be completely joyous at the turn of events. Specific to Lebanon, assuming a government truly representing the people arises, that means Hezbollah will be a major power broker. And as we know, Hezbollah still supports bombing in Israel.
  


• Something Stirs (The Economist) - And in case you thought I was just presenting a liberal or progressive point of view, here's basically the same angle from The Economist, which has generally been supportive of the Bush Admin.
  

In the end, I think this still comes down to Iran since that is whom the Bush Admin has been targetting. The focus since the murder of Lebanon's former PM has been on Syria, but Iran is still the country with the biggest influence in the region. Plus, the lack of democracy in these countries has supressed the in-fighting that would otherwise occur between various factions. We're seeing that in Iraq everyday. So while it's great and amazing that progress is being made, we're not homefree. The ultimate success here won't be known until quite a while from now and will require a very fine-tuned foreign policy play.

Alternate reality TV

I was looking through bills last night while my wife was watching ZeeTV. For those that don't know, ZeeTV is an Indian channel which shows Indian movies as well as soap operas. My wife will kill me for saying this, but she's addicted to those soaps.

But that's another story, for another day :)

In any case, there are some pretty odd commercials during these soaps. Normally, my wife forwards through these ads (Thank God for DVR!), but last night she was watching live TV so no forwarding.

An ad comes up and I caught this slogan in between flipping through bills: "Don't marry the biggest mistake of your life"

Huh?

It seems pretty odd that a company would use such a slogan, but I couldn't help but laugh at this one. What company would try to scare me into using its services? Well, it's a company called JeevanSathi.com. In Hindi, that means Life Partner. So clearly it's a marriage hook-up site, but why scare us? Do the genuises behind this ad really think that if I'm looking for a mate, I'm going to run to this site because I'm scared? Moreover, if I'm really that scared I would probably just run to mommy and get her to find me a good obedient bride

So that got me thinking about some other wierd ads on ZeeTV. There's this one ad for loose black tea. I'm not sure what brand. Set scene with a marginally decent looking girl walking into an Indian grocery store. Ok, let's just call a spade a spade. She ain't all that. The tea company clearly didn't pay for a make-up artist and chick can't afford even walking by the MAC counter at Macy's. So then a guy walks into the same grocery store. Now this guy is clearly a FOB. Don't ask me why I know this, I just know.

So both these two look at the shelf and there's only one bag of tea left! Oh No! So they both run over and the fobby dude gets a hand on the bag before the ugly chick.

Now, if this ad was aimed at a more western audience, what would you expect to happen? Amongst various things, I'm sure the chick would somehow end up with the tea bag and the guy would be assed out. Or maybe the two would work out some sort of deal to both enjoy the tea. They would be some snarky comments between the two and that would be the end of that.

Now, what would happen if this ad was aimed at a fob audience? Well, the two do work out a deal of some sorts. But it's gotta be the most sexist deal I've seen in an ad.

As soon as the dude grabs the tea, the chick says in Hindi, "I make really good tea" in this really flirty voice. The Fob bugs out his eyes. I'm sure if the camera zoomed out we'd notice the guy's gonna have a tough time walking (ahem). So this doesn't seem all that odd since it would set the scene for the chick ruining the dude's day somehow. Afterall, it's pretty common for a guy to get assed out in a TV commercial. But what happens next is really surprising. The scene moves to what must be the fob's house. Dude is wearing old school pajamas, chick is wearing some sort of Indian outfit. Both are drinking tea at the dining table.

So what I get from this turn of events is that the chick wanted the tea so badly that she would sleep with an ugly fob to get her caffiene high. She'd not only sleep with him, she'd wait until the next morning to get her hit. Moreover, SHE made HIM the tea!

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!

Ok, let's look at this calmly. What audience would this ad be appealing to? The only guess I can make is that ugly fob dudes would love it. They can now stalk Indian grocery stores and get random chicks to sleep with them. More realistically, these dudes would laugh at the ad and think "Man, I wish I was him, he's cool"

But let's look at the reality. Most of these shows are watched by Indian women. IF an Indian man watches it, it's probably alongside his wife, mother, daughter, or some other women. Not to say these shows can't be appealing to men, but seriously, how often are guys watching these things alone on weeknights? The guys who might do this are more likely still in the office tapping away at their keyboards.

That being said, the guy who's watching with a woman may want to think he's got game like the ugly fob in the ad, but outwardly, he's gotta act like the ad is outrageous. The woman watching it should clearly think the ad is outrageous. Who the hell would sleep with a dude for tea?! The women watching this ad should rightly be pissed and not ever want to buy that brand of tea. The guys watching this with their spouses wouldn't want to buy the tea because once they brought it home it would be thrown straight in the garbage by their wives. Plus, they'd have to go without dinner!

Think about that? Most of the people watching this ad would immediately hate the brand and think, "What the hell is this company trying to tell me? If I don't get what I want, I should do whatever's necessary to get it, but I should make sure to serve men so they'll be happy with me?"

These ads clearly show there is some other alternate reality for these companies. One company feels comfortable with scaring potential customers into using their service. The other company feels comfortable is showing blatantly sexist scenarios even though the majority of their audience is women.

I dare say it's an alternate Fob universe, but seriously, no matter how conservative or clueless you are, you can't be encouraged to spend your money on these brands. They just insult everyone's intelligence.

And you wonder why I don't watch these shows :)

What was that song?

Have you ever seen an ad and wanted to find out what song they had playing? Usually these ads are forgettable except for the music featured. Well, I realized that I've never mentioned my source for finding out this info.

Now, the homie Anish seems to know a hell of a lot of songs, especially hip hop, but most of these ads have songs pulled outta nowhere and its tough to know the song just off of memory. So what's the source?

It's a website called AdTunes. The people who run the site put pretty full descriptions and information a few times a month, but they've also a very active forum where you can simply ask others about the song or search through previous posts. If you know the brand being advertised and what was featured in the ad, you can usually find an answer in a few minutes. Most people also provide links into the iTunes sample of the song so it's easy to double-check. In fact, you can find info about songs featured in ads, tv shows, movies, the whole nine yards. Pretty cool.

Oh, and since I know you're wondering: That iTunes Shuffle song? It's by The Caesars and it's called "Jerk It Out". And those Vonage commercials with the silly song (which, by the way was also featured on Chevy Cobalt ads for a minute)? It's by the 5,6,7,8's and it's called "Woo Hoo"

No go watch some more TV and (il)legally download the songs from all the ads you love.